Further discussion of Ian Ayres & John Donohue

6/13/03

Here is a recent review of my book, The Bias Against Guns.

"John Lott's latest salvo in the gun wars, The Bias Against Guns, explains why virtually everything one hears about gun control is wrong.
With a cool and analytical tone that is a refreshing contrast to the overheated rhetoric of the anti-gun crowd, Lott makes the case that private ownership of guns and the right to carry them actually results in a safer society. He includes reams of data to back up his claim."

In my June 7th post I discussed John Donohue's letter to the Columbus Dispatch. Well, Professor David Mayer at the Capital University Law School in Columbus, Ohio has joined the fray with a letter in today's Dispatch. Professor Mayer raises questions about the emotional tone of Donohue's letter, and he addresses whether Ayres and Donohue's own statistical evidence shows what they claim that it does. One point that I would add is that while Ayres and Donohue have now written several pieces between them on right-to-carry laws, none of their papers have appeared in refereed journals.

Update:

An e-mailer asks about whether the Ayres and Donohue piece in the American Law and Economics Review was refereed. While the original papers in that journal are indeed refereed, their piece was a review article and my understanding from Ayres was that it was not refereed.

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The End of Myth: An Interview with Dr. John Lott

Cold Comfort, Economist John Lott discusses the benefits of guns--and the hazards of pointing them out.

An interview with John R. Lott, Jr. author of More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws

Some data not found at www.johnlott.org:

Updated Media Analysis of Appalachian Law School Attack

Since the first news search was done additional news stories have been added to Nexis:

There are thus now 218 unique stories, and a total of 294 stories counting duplicates (the stories in yellow were duplicates): Excel file for general overview and specific stories. Explicit mentions of defensive gun use increase from 2 to 3 now.

Journal of Legal Studies paper on spoiled ballots during the 2000 Presidential Election

Data set from USA Today, STATA 7.0 data set

"Do" File for some of the basic regressions from the paper